Run For Your Life
by INMH
Summary: For the love bingo challenge, prompt "I'm Sorry". He knows she's sorry, very sorry, but unfortunately that doesn't fix anything. Elijah/Rose.


Run For Your Life

**Rating:** PG/K+

**Genre:** Romance/Angst/Drama

**Summary: **For the love_bingo challenge, prompt "I'm Sorry". He knows she's sorry, very sorry, but unfortunately that doesn't fix anything. Elijah/Rose.

**Author's Note:** …AAAAND my speculation for Rose's sire-reveal in 3.19 comes full-circle. :D

**Disclaimer:** I don't own The Vampire Diaries. It belongs to L.J. Smith/The CW.

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"I'm sorry," Rosemarie weeps. Her hands are pressed over her eyes, and she's trembling with fright. "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry."

She cried like this once before, the night Elijah turned her. When she had awoken from her death and into the transition phase with blood on her neck, she had seen his face- his predator's snarl- and uttered a soft scream and started to sob. It had surprised him a bit; this wasn't an uncommon reaction, but Rosemarie had otherwise struck him as a stout girl.

"Shhh," He had soothed her, eyes morphing back to their normal color and fangs receding. "Shhh, don't be frightened. You're safe. I won't hurt you." Rosemarie was too shell-shocked to push him away when he'd wrapped an arm around her.

Elijah doesn't soothe her now. Katerina is gone, and a vampire- And Rosemarie has just confessed that it was her blood that Katerina used to turn herself, after Trevor unwittingly fell for her false affections. Klaus doesn't know yet. Elijah is now the one that has to tell him. He briefly considers making Rosemarie do it, or maybe Trevor, but…

She's trying desperately to wipe her eyes, and he knows that it must be killing her to throw her pride to the side and make her terror so obvious. He doesn't know if it's serious, or rather a ploy to gain mercy.

Rosemarie is strong and smart, and that's why he turned her. He admired her beauty and her cunning, her acerbic wit and her resilience. He was attracted to her, and without a Petrova to taunt him with her wiles he allowed himself to be. Elijah had lingered close to her, fingers dancing over sun-kissed skin and lips brushing against honey locks. She had liked it. The attention had made her glow.

Elijah turns away from the fireplace and looks at her completely, rather than in the reflection of the silver on the mantelpiece. Rosemarie's head is bowed, hands clutching at each other, trembling. She utters a soft choking sound, like she's on the edge of sobbing again and is just managing to restrain herself.

Rosemarie is sorry. Elijah knows she's sorry, very sorry indeed, but unfortunately that doesn't change anything.

He walks over to her, and Rose isn't looking but she hears him and moans quietly. Maybe she thinks that he intends to kill her.

Not yet.

Elijah stands above her for a moment, and she doesn't look up. He waits to see if she will, but either fear or shame keeps her gaze on the floor. He sighs, and then crouches down before her. His hands come up to cup her jaw, and she whimpers, perhaps expecting him to rip her head clean off (she's seen him do it before).

Elijah has become cruel in the last five-hundred years, but not that cruel. He kisses her on the forehead, and then pulls her close.

"I loved you once," He mutters into her ear, fingers brushing the underside of her chin. He feels her breath hitch before he hears it. "And that's why you get to walk away right now."

Years and years later, looking back on this moment, Elijah will hate himself. First for blaming Rosemarie for Katerina's deception- only in retrospect does he understand her trickery- and second for citing the love he'd once had for her, the love he still had a little of for her, when it had been largely pushed aside for Katerina.

Rose is hurt by the reference, and in the present Elijah doesn't care. She's smarter than this- or she's supposed to be. How could she let Katerina trick her? Elijah will suffer for two women he cares for being involved in this treachery. Klaus will not be happy with him.

She looks like she might be about to appeal, to beg, because she's seen what happens to vampires that cross Klaus. Death might be easier. It would certainly be faster. Elijah knows that this a valid concern, but in reality, she does not have as much to fear as Katerina does. That he knows.

"My Lord," She croaks, and her eyes are puffy when he pulls back and looks at her fully. "Elijah-"

"_Go_, Rosemarie." His tone is cold, warning. "I will not kill you, but my brother is not so forgiving. And soon he will demand an explanation of me."

Rosemarie is up and stumbling towards the door. He knows she'll go get Trevor, pack what belongings they have and run. She's too smart, he hopes, to look back. He straightens up, strolls back over to the fireplace and leans head on arm against the mantle. He shuts his eyes and wonders how he's going to explain this without Klaus lopping his head off, or worse- daggering him like he had Finn.

Elijah doesn't see Rosemarie stop at the door, hesitate, look back. She looks like she's about to say something, it's on the tip of her tongue…

…And then it slowly falls shut again.

Rosemarie sniffs, and then flees the castle, the area, the country.

She won't see Elijah for five-hundred more years.

-End

SECOND BINGO! I feel like such an over-achiever. :P


End file.
